1. Field of the Invention
One of the major problems facing future generations is polluted water. Increasing world population and rapid industrial growth combine to cause tremendous contamination problems in the world's rivers, lakes and oceans with an infinite variety of chemical and biological substances. Purification systems that can quickly and economically provide abundant amounts of fresh water from sewage or contaminated water will be and are in great demand.
2. Description of Related Art
A vacuum distillation system should be able to purify any contaminated liquid, such as water from a polluted river. While the prior art systems achieve this to a limited degree, there are significant commercial drawbacks.
To increase the efficiency of a distillation process, use of a vacuum has been tried. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,598 describes a distillation purifying system which creates a vacuum pressure that is transmitted throughout the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,606 discusses a distillation purifying system that uses an open tube bundle heat exchanger that heats the liquid (in this case, seawater) to facilitate vigorous evaporation resulting in the separation of salt and other contaminants from the water vapor.
Many of these inventions are unduly complex, uneconomical or not as efficient as the trade requires. The present invention overcomes these drawbacks to provide an advance to the art.